UW In The News

Majority of divisive Facebook ads bought by ‘suspicious groups’: study

One in six of those groups was linked to Russia, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study here, and the identities of the rest of the 122 groups that are labeled “suspicious” are still unknown, an indication of the influence of “astroturf” or shell companies in U.S. politics.

How Russian Facebook Ads Divided and Targeted US Voters Before the 2016 Election

When Young Mie Kim began studying political ads on Facebook in August of 2016—while Hillary Clinton was still leading the polls— few people had ever heard of the Russian propaganda group, Internet Research Agency. Not even Facebook itself understood how the group was manipulating the platform’s users to influence the election. For Kim, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the goal was to document the way the usual dark money groups target divisive election ads online, the kind that would be more strictly regulated if they appeared on TV. She never knew then she was walking into a crime scene.

Humorology makes community stronger for 70 years

For 70 years a UW-Madison institution has been changing the community for the better. Humorology, the largest student run nonprofit in the state, pits original mini musicals against one another in the spirit of philanthropy.

UW-Madison partnership marks 3 years of outreach on the city’s South Side

An exercise class for older women and bringing people of color into research on Alzheimer’s disease. Classes for the Odyssey Project, the successful yearlong program designed as a pathway for low-income people to attend college. Community space for the African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Dane County, Urban League of Greater Madison and Madison Area Technical College. Those are among the offerings of the UW South Madison Partnership, which recently celebrated its third year providing services on Madison’s South Side. The university’s courses, clinics and research programs take place at its facility in Villager Mall, 2312 S. Park St., which also has space available for community groups.

Paul Ryan Returns to a State Still Recovering From Recession

Quoted: “Wisconsin’s economy is kind of just slugging along,” said Steven Deller, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We weren’t hit as badly by the great recession, but our recovery has been painfully slow.”

Plants “Eavesdrop” on Slimy Snails

When ecologist John Orrock of the University of Wisconsin–Madison squirted snail slime—a lubricating mucus the animals ooze as they slide along—into soil, nearby tomato plants appeared to notice.

Fiscal hawk Ryan leaves behind growing deficits and a changed GOP

Quoted: “When it was time to stand up and say, ‘Hey we can’t do things that way,’ or ‘This doesn’t make sense’, he never did that,” said Tim Smeeding, a public affairs and economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

When Patrick Reed’s past and present merge, a question of what’s fair game

Quoted: “Our history follows us more publicly than it used to,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Culver noted that maybe two decades ago if Reed’s final round had been marred by a scoring discrepancy or lost-ball kerfuffle, the stories of his past might have surfaced briefly and merely as footnotes. But today those stories face boldly forward in the midst of an essentially flawless performance.

Alien life may be hiding in the clouds of Venus

“Venus had plenty of time to evolve life on its own,” said lead author Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center, in a press release. In fact, previous research suggests that Venus could have once maintained a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” he said.

What We Know And Don’t Know About Memory Loss After Surgery

Quoted: “Beyond question, patients should be informed that the ‘safety step’ of not undergoing surgery is theirs to choose,” wrote Dr. Kirk Hogan, professor of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, in an article published earlier this year. “Each patient must determine if the proposed benefits of a procedure outweigh the foreseeable and material risks of cognitive decline after surgery.”

Speaker Ryan Says He’s Not Running For Re-Election: What’s Next For Congress?

Featured: U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election at the end of his term saying he wants to spend more time with family. We talk with WPR News’ Capitol Reporter Laurel White for reactions from the speaker’s district, then turn to a political scientist look at the effects on Congress, Wisconsin and on Ryan’s future. (Guest: David Canon)

‘Who We Are and How We Got Here’ Review: Ghosts in the Genome

Some 4,500 years ago, the Bell Beakers invaded Britain. Roughly 90% of the genes of later Britons came from this group, named for the distinctive shape of their pottery. Archaeologists long thought that Britain’s early farmers, who built Stonehenge five millennia ago, adopted the pots from continental neighbors. Instead DNA evidence shows that the farmers were nearly annihilated by the Bell Beakers.

Mr. Hawks is a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis

Low birth weight is a key factor in infant death, and a new report released in March by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin suggests that the number of low-birth-weight babies born in the United States — also driven by the data for black babies — has inched up for the first time in a decade.

Equal Pay Day 2018: Myths About the Gender Wage Gap

Quoted: Reality: A major study on this question came out in 2011, and Janet Mertz, senior author of the study and a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, concluded, “This is not a matter of biology: None of our findings suggest that an innate biological difference between the sexes is the primary reason for a gender gap in math performance at any level.”

Discovery of a middle finger bone in Arabia changes human history

Quoted: “I think this is a cool discovery and it definitely suggests that we need to explore the Arabian peninsula much more for fossil humans and their ancestors,” John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study, said via email.

The record number of women running in Democratic primaries will likely outperform their Republican peers

Those tallies are particularly interesting given research released this week by Barry Burden of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Yoshikuni Ono of Tohoku University in Japan. They analyzed the extent to which gender bias affected the underrepresentation of women in elected office using a survey that presented respondents with randomly generated fictional candidates.

How Could a ‘Sand Motor’ Help the Great Lakes?

Undergraduate research scholar Briana Shea is part of the team exploring this topic. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Undergraduate Research Scholars program gives first- and second-year students a taste of cutting-edge research in a variety of fields.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Latest Victory for Women

Quoted: “Strategically, politically, it was really, really effective,” said Ryan Owens, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who heads the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

$220 million building boom on UW-Madison campus will modernize chemistry and agriculture facilities

The longtime space crunch for students taking chemistry classes will finally begin to ease in a couple of years, the famous but antiquated Babcock Dairy Hall is getting a big addition and the meat science program will soon get a new building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Non-scientists can explore UW-Madison science work at annual open house this weekend

The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don’t have enough to eat

According to a first-of-its-kind survey released Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, 36 percent of students at 66 surveyed colleges and universities do not get enough to eat, and a similar number lack a secure place to live.ADVERTISING

Take Care of Those Hammies

Quoted: “I’m definitely doing more overuse hamstring surgeries now,” says Geoffrey Baer, an orthopedic surgeon with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and team physician for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department.

Scientists Propose Craft to Search Venus for Life

But for all the planet’s seemingly inhospitable traits, “Venus has had plenty of time to evolve life on its own,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Sanjay Limaye, who led the new study, in a press release. Limaye points to models that suggest Venus could have sustained a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” says Limaye.

Groundwater Quality A Cause For Concern For Some Wisconsin Voters

Quoted: One of the biggest misconceptions about this issue is that the size of the farm is the main contributor to well contamination, said Becky Larson, a professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and bio-waste specialist at UW-Extension.

Smiles Hide Many Messages—Some Unfriendly

“Different smiles have different impacts on people’s bodies,” said Jared D. Martin, a doctoral student who led the study in the lab of University of Wisconsin–Madison psychology professor Paula Niedenthal. Along with poker players, psychologists have long known that our facial expressions can betray our emotions. But no one has demonstrated exactly how this works, Mr. Martin said.

5 things to know about food delivery app EatStreet as its rapid national growth continues

The Madison-based food ordering and delivery app EatStreet is one of the recent success stories in the Wisconsin startup scene. The company founded in a dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 has become a real player in the online food ordering business across the United States. EatStreet connects diners in more than 250 cities to more than 15,000 restaurants.

As elections loom, Democrats vow not to be baited by Trump’s name-calling

Quoted: The danger for Trump’s opponents, said Dietram Scheufele, a professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin, was “letting him define the battlefield.”

New Evidence Suggests Possible Life on Venus

But for all the planet’s seemingly inhospitable traits, “Venus has had plenty of time to evolve life on its own,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Sanjay Limaye, who led the new study, in a press release. Limaye points to models that suggest Venus could have sustained a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” says Limaye.

Hunger on campus: researchers say a quarter of U.S. college students went hungry

Jed Richardson, a scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and one of the researchers, said high-living costs, including tuition fees in some instances, might explain the results.

TV anchors decrying ‘fake’ news puts spotlight on Sinclair Broadcast Group

Quoted: TV anchors decrying ‘fake’ news puts spotlight on Sinclair Broadcast Group (with UW–Madison’s Lewis Friedland.)